American Library Association (ALA)

• The American Library Association is a comprehensive national non-profit organization that advocates for libraries across the country as well as promotes literacy. As the ALA is a vast organization that wears many hats, it covers organizations for many professional groups in the library field and also features helpful links to professional information like news articles, literacy ideas, and even blogs and listservs. The ALA site also links out to many subset organizations that offer their own more specified information about the library field. Some of which, including the Public Library Association, are listed below.
• I will briefly mention how the ALA has provided conference information for me in the past, and provides librarians access to the Library Bill of Rights and other statements from the association, including thoughts on intellectual freedom. There is so much more to the organization and I hope to delve more deeply into it in the future. Below are three organizational divisions within the American Library Association that I have found helpful in my work as a student and a professional. I expect to use these subset divisions, as well as the main site, in the future.
• I first encountered the ALA site when I was interested in looking up the ALA's Library Bill of Rights for a high school project.

a. Public Library Association (PLA)

b. Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)

d. Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)

• NIEER is a national organization that conducts research and offers research analysis and advice help young children and those who teach them with educational efforts. NIEER is a great supplement to Every Child Ready To Read, which offers less compelling information online. The site offers a news section, an annual research reports section, book recommendations, presentations and videos, and sections for the latest research and research by category.
• I have used this site to look into access and assessment for youngsters, etc. In the future, I expect to continue to use this organization to remain updated on research and the potential of certain research projects.
• I first encountered this site when I was looking into early education and literacy information when I first began baby, toddler, and preschool programming as an intern.

National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL)

• The NFIL is an organization promoting literacy to all populations across the country. The thing the site makes apparent on the home page is there is a yearly literacy campaign that clearly seems to be heavily promoted. Features include a front page slideshow, a resource page, information on the literacy campaign, information about the organization, and news.
• I have not used this site in the past, but the idea of a yearly literacy campaign is intriguing and it would be interesting to follow this organization for a year and see if the information is worth keeping up on.
• I first encountered this site when looking at literacy resources at the national level that would encompass adults and children.